Jason Clare says Turnbull ‘lied’ on copper NBN costs

news The Opposition has accused Malcolm Turnbull of telling a “lie” with respect to the cost of upgrading Telstra’s copper network to support Fibre to the Node technology on the National Broadband Network, at the time when the Prime Minister was the Shadow Communications Minister.

Under Labor’s previous near-universal Fibre to the Premises model for the NBN, the HFC cable and copper networks owned by Telstra and Optus would have been shut down. However, the Coalition’s Multi-Technology Mix plan instituted by Malcolm Turnbull as Communications Minister in the Abbott administration is seeing them acquired and upgraded by the NBN company.

However, internal documents released by the Opposition last week showed that, by the NBN company’s own estimates, the cost of remediating Telstra’s network had blown out by a factor of ten from original expectations, to about $641 million, with the cost of rolling out infrastructure to each premise via Fibre to the Node having blown out from $600 to about $1600 per premise.

Speaking late last week at Parliament House, Clare said Turnbull had estimated that the cost of upgrading Telstra’s copper network to support Fibre to the Node technology would cost about $50 million, appearing to refer to costs estimated as part of the NBN Strategic Review conducted in November 2013 when Turnbull was Communications Minister. “Now we find out that it will cost more than $600 million,” he said.

Clare said Turnbull had perpetuated a “myth” that he had somehow “fixed the NBN”. However, the Shadow Minister said, the claim was “just that — it is a myth”.

“He has made a mess of the NBN,” Clare added. “He’s doubled the cost. Doubled the time it will take to build it and now we find out that the cost of upgrading the copper has blown out by almost 900 percent. That’s what this document reveals – that the cost of upgrading the copper to make his second rate network work has blown out by almost 900 percent. Now most people don’t get promoted for blowing their budget by almost 900 percent. Most people get the sack. Malcolm Turnbull was made Prime Minister, not because of what he did to the NBN but in spite of it.”

Clare said when choosing the direction of the NBN following the September 2013 Election, Turnbull had relied on information that was written by “mates that he owns a yacht with”.

Clare said his view on the use of Telstra’s copper network as part of the NBN had been “very clear from the start: That Fibre to the Node is second-rate”.

“That it is not what people are going to need in the long term. It’s why Verizon in the United States is getting rid of copper and rolling out fibre. It’s why Singapore, Japan, South Korea, even New Zealand have decided that we need fibre to the home, not fibre to the node, relying upon last century’s copper,” he said.

“Malcolm Turnbull said he could do this, he said he could do it cheap. What this leaked document today reveals that that was all wrong. That was all a lie.”

“It’s not going to cost $50 million, it’s blown out by almost 900 percent to more than $600 million. It’s just another example of Malcolm Turnbull’s bad judgment. We see it on Mal Brough, and his refusal to sack Mal Brough. We saw it years ago when he accepted the advice of fraudster Godwin Grech, who gave him false information and we see it now on the NBN.”

The news comes as Turnbull yesterday came under pressure about his stewardship of the NBN project, in the context of the fact that its infrastructure will support the National Innovation and Science Agenda the Prime Minister unveiled yesterday morning.

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The development of the NBN Strategic Review was overseen by J.B. Rousselot, an executive who was appointed to a senior position at the NBN company following Turnbull’s appointment as Communications Minister. Rousselot and Turnbull have previously worked together at several companies, and are reported to be joint owners of a yacht.

and this is the type of cronyism that screams corruption, Ergas is another example of TurnBull hiring mates who would deliver what they knew he wanted!

We need a Royal Commision into the Liberal party and TurnBull’s deliberate destruction of the NBN!

who also claimed he was an independent arbiter WRT the SR and yet was handing out liberal how-to-vote cards….

its hard to see anyone who doesnt fit the definition of ‘Crony’ in the appointments this government has made. if not more correctly ‘corporate cronies’. no matter your politics, that should be offensive to anyone looking on.

‘,with the cost of rolling out infrastructure to each premise via Fibre to the Node having blown out from $600 to about $1600 per premise.’

Yes we know it was in the CP16 released August this year, so was brownfields FTTP CPP at $3,700, funny Clare didn’t mention that, I and others look forward to the release of the Labor NBN 2016 plan especially the detailed costings.

“That it is not what people are going to need in the long term. It’s why Verizon in the United States is getting rid of copper and rolling out fibre. It’s why Singapore, Japan, South Korea, even New Zealand have decided that we need fibre to the home, not fibre to the node, relying upon last century’s copper,” he said.”

What he also didn’t say is the Verizon rollout is cherry picked to certain areas only, hey Jason ask Verizon to give you a quote for the FTTP contract for Labor NBN 2016, don’t forget to tell them they have to wholesale it to their competitors at a price set by the ACCC, see if they return your call.

You also didn’t mention the well established BT FTTN infrastructure and their G.fast trials in the UK or Comcast in the USA upgrading their existing well established HFC infrastructure to DOCSIS 3.1, you must have forgot in the haste to get that crucial yacht story in.

Hey Jason you going to keep the Coalition NBN HFC and FTTB and retrofit FTTN with FTTP or not? hmm bit of a curly one that, best to say nothing.

Well we know what the Labor NBN strategy so far is, avoid mentioning at all cost what we are going to do post election win 2016, and avoid mentioning what happened when we had NBN control for six years.

I assume months out from the election a one line policy will be released, ‘Labor is the party of fibre’, the T-shirt order will be already in.

“Hey Jason you going to keep the Coalition NBN HFC and FTTB and retrofit FTTN with FTTP or not? hmm bit of a curly one that, best to say nothing.”

Pretty sure he has already said previously that Labor wouldn’t be going back to full FTTP because it can’t at this point, but they are committed to putting fibre as close to the premises as is feasible. Likely with something like FTTdp in place of FTTN.

Which, a lot of people here you like to call “fibre zealots” would support at this point from either party, since it gives people who want to pay for it, an affordable price to pay for fibre-on-demand, as the final loop is significantly shorter, and it also lets them use your often touted G.Fast as a solution for high speed access regardless.

Your argument is a non sequitur, Alain. Labor’s future position on the NBN is not required to judge the LNP’s handling of it. Given that the LNP have gone out of their way to make it impossible for Labor to change anything without incurring tremendous penalties it’s not like they have any good options here anyway. But it doesn’t matter if Labor decide to replace the copper with kittens – the LNP’s performance must be judged on its own merits.

“The related nodes are fed directly by fibre optic cable and often BT will need to bring this cable even closer to your home than an existing FTTC setup, which helps to support the faster speeds. However these nodes still have to be powered by small nearby power supply units at ground level, which may increase the network complexity and maintenance requirements.”

Oh and BT have threatened if they get separated they will can the upgrades.
Sweet deal.

G.Fast is a upgrade path from FTTN, it is not the sole justification for rolling out FTTN in the first place.

The justification for rolling out FTTN in Australia is that Telstra were paid $11b which the Coalition got the copper and HFC included, Labor were paying the same money not to have the copper and HFC and overbuild them with the most expensive infrastructure option with the highest CPP, brownfields FTTP.

FTTP is the product that one of the USA’s largets telco’s AT&T stated was ‘extraordinarily costly’ and requires their own Direct TV product to help justify and pay for its rollout.

“FTTP is the product that one of the USA’s largets telco’s AT&T stated was ‘extraordinarily costly’ and requires their own Direct TV product to help justify and pay for its rollout.”

Wrong. Read the PDF application more carefully next time.
“AT&T and DIRECTV have demonstrated that the savings and synergies made possible by this transaction will fundamentally and permanently increase the incentives of the combined company to expand and enhance its broadband networks”

Because AT&T would definitely rollout FTTH if they were going to be losing money off it *face palm*

There are two pretty important points about VDSL2 and g.fast:
A) they cannot be run concurrently on the same network, you have to switch the whole thing from one to another in stages wherever you have copper or you’ll kill everything.
B) you will have to remove some 26,000 nodes, run additional fibre out to the new FTTdp nodes and run additional power to every one of them.

That’s starting to sound an awful lot more like a replacement than an upgrade.

@UG, B ) is what I meant by saying it is bypassing the node, they can in theory take the fibre bundle from the node and splice it into another fibre bundle running to the distribution point, but then they have a node that is literally doing nothing.

“Pretty sure he has already said previously that Labor wouldn’t be going back to full FTTP because it can’t at this point,”

Well duh yeah that’s a given, so are they going to retrofit active FTTN areas or not, it uses that nasty ‘last century copper’, it would be a top priority surely?

” but they are committed to putting fibre as close to the premises as is feasible. Likely with something like FTTdp in place of FTTN.”

They haven’t committed to anything yet, not even a hint, especially about HFC and FTTB.

I bet they don’t want to to be seen as anything like a ‘nearly same as Coalition policy’, they will just hint at it being different keep it vague and keep head kicking Coalition policy based on yachts and that nasty ‘last century copper’, and hope that gets them over the line.

“They haven’t committed to anything yet, not even a hint, especially about HFC and FTTB.”

Well duh, that’s because with MTM in complete and utter disarray, not even the current NBN or government know from day to day just how much copper/HFC is usable… let alone those in the wilderness of opposition.

Just more proof of the shamefulness of this government not just sticking with FttP, that even you yourself, only a couple of days back, admitted was/is a vastly superior roll out to FttN/MTM.

Remember now… when you also admitted the abysmal MTM failure is the current NBN/Gov’s (Morrow/Turnbull) fault because Conroy/Quigley’s are no longer in charge…?

“Fibre to the node will be gone, it’s not a question of if this will happen, it’s when it will happen and how it will be done.
“If you vote for the Labor Party at the next election you will be voting for more fibre.”

That reads they will be putting fibre closer to the premises, Renai even did an article about it….

Jason Clare in the past two days made a statement referencing FTTdp that nbn is currently doing trials with, with a claim that at some point before the election, nbn will switch tack and start rolling out FTTdp instead of FTTN.

Now, that could just be crystal ball gazing, but it also suggests to me that Labor is looking at FTTdp as a solution to dealing with the MTM if they are returned to power.

Yes, they haven’t released their entire policy yet, but really, who cares? When did the LNP release their $29bn 25Mbit for all by 2016 before the election? April 2013? Oh, right… What’s good for the goose isn’t good for the gander in your ridiculous world. You expect Labor should release their policy now, and if they don’t, they don’t get to complain about anything. Funny how the LNP did a whole lot of complaining about the NBN without ever discussing what their plans were until 5 months before the election.

“Yes we know it was in the CP16 released August this year, so was brownfields FTTP CPP at $3,700, funny Clare didn’t mention that, I and others look forward to the release of the Labor NBN 2016 plan especially the detailed costings.”

It’s ok mate, Malcolm will probably pay for another SR soon that’ll show FTTN down to $200/install and FTTP actually being $10k/install.

I thought it was $20k? Isn’t the the figure they were using for last mile fibre termination costs?

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